Ripple Effect
by Damon Salvatore is awesome
Summary: In 'The Departed', Damon was able to find the will power to fight back against Alaric by remembering the first time he hmet Elena. However, what would have happened if he hadn't? how would that have changed the outcome of his fight with Alaric and Elena's decision to transition?


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries, parts of the dialogue used, or anything else you may recognize.**

Storage facility outside of Mystic Falls

11:35 P.M.

Damon fell to the ground painfully. He could taste blood in his mouth from the blood on his face as he dazedly stared up at his best friend-turned-enemy.

"Come on, fight back!" Alaric shouted at him.

"You're kind of invincible Ric." Damon told him weakly.

"Don't call me that, we're not friends." Alaric told him coldly.

"We were." Damon argued.

"And our friendship was part of the problem. It kept me weak and that's why it took so long for the real me to break free. And now, I'm gonna break you." Alaric said before hitting Damon with the butt of the White Oak stake.

Damon's head fell back on the floor painfully. His body felt like it had been through the meat slicer one hundred times. Although the pain in his body was nothing, absolutely nothing compared the pain in his heart.

Under different circumstances, he would have tried to fight back. However, he no longer had the will to fight left in him. And really, why should he even bother? What possible reason was there left on this Earth for him to go on living?

His brother wanted him gone, the girl he loved had left him to die alone so she could go run back to his brother, and his best friend was more or less dead. He had nothing left to live for. He was simply drifting along without a purpose. He was tired of fighting, of feeling, when all he got was pain in return.

"If you're gonna kill me, just do it already." Damon told Alaric gruffly.

Alaric paused, looking down at him curiously. After a moment, Alaric's eyes widened in surprised realization before he gave Damon a assessing look.

"You really don't care whether you live or die." Alaric noted causing Damon to laugh humorlessly.

"Why would I, no one's gonna miss me." Damon told him his voice thick with emotion.

"You're right…no one will." Alaric said callously.

Alaric then raised the White Oak stake high above Damon and then, fast as lightning, drove it down and staked Damon in the heart. Damon gasped in pain for a moment before his skin turned a blotchy grey and his eyes shrived shut. Alaric pulled the stake out of Damon then stood back up.

Alaric stared down at the body of his former best friend. The miniscule part of him that hadn't been corrupted by the Gilbert ring and Esther's magic howled in grief over the death of his best friend, but that part of him was quickly silenced. Alaric turned around to leave so he could pursue the remaining Originals when something happened. He suddenly found it difficult to breath, which was strange because he was a vampire; he no longer needed to breathe. Alaric's legs gave out and he fell to the ground.

"What's happening?" He wondered out loud as he gasped for breath desperately.

Alaric gasped for breath as his mind came to the only logical explanation. His life was linked to Elena's…Elena was dying. He had barely wrapped his mind around this thought when he was plunged into a world of blackness.

Gilbert house, Elena's room, the next morning

7:15 A.M.

Elena gasped as she shot up in bed. She looked around as she attempted to catch her breath and spotted Stefan sitting at the edge of her bed. She immediately noticed that something was wrong. While he looked solemn, his eyes seemed to be empty of all emotions. Not a bored empty, but a pained, dull empty.

"What happened?" She asked him.

"You were in an accident." Stefan said emotionlessly.

She gasped as she remembered. Matt driving off the road, Stefan swimming down, her telling him to save Matt…

"Matt, is he alright?" Elena demanded.

"Matt's fine." Stefan said still with no emotions.

"Oh thank god," Elena sighed in relief, "I thought I was dead, how'd you save me?"

"I didn't." Stefan told her blankly.

"Then how am I alive?" Elena asked confused and slightly worried about how Stefan was acting.

"When Jeremy brought you to the hospital last night, your injuries were worse that anyone knew. Meredith Fell made a choice, and she used _Damon's _blood to heal you." Stefan said his emotionless façade cracking and his eyes showing great pain as he spoke his brother's name.

"What's going on Stefan?" Elena asked choosing to process her dead/undead status later, "you haven't shown any emotion except when you said Damon's name just now. What is going on?"

"Elena…" Stefan hesitated.

"What is going on?" Elena demanded.

"When I found out about you, I called Damon to tell him about you," Stefan began slowly, "he didn't answer. I called five more times in ten minutes, he still didn't answer. Bonnie went out there to check on him and found Alaric's body. Apparently, they were fighting when Rebekah decided to run you and Matt off the road. But she didn't do it quickly enough."

"Stefan…what are you trying to say?" Elena asked weakly needing to hear it from him even though her heart was already breaking from the truth she knew.

"Elena…Damon's dead." Stefan choked out.

"What, no! No no no no no." Elena said as she began to sob.

Stefan wrapped his arms around her. Maybe she would have enjoyed that last night, but now all she wanted was a different pair of arms around her.

Gilbert house, Elena's room

12:17 P.M.

Elena sat on her bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, tears falling down her cheeks. Stefan was down stairs, but she could not find it in herself to care. Damon was dead. That one phrase had been repeating itself through her mind all day. She had spent all this time pushing away, afraid of her own feelings, and now she could never correct that mistake. But then a familiar voice spoke out.

"Cute PJ's."

Whirling around, Elena spotted Damon sitting by the window. She broke out into a giant smile.

"Damon." She said happily but then another voice spoke up.

"I'm tired Damon."

Elena turned around to see another version of herself in the room with them. True to Damon's joke, she was dressed in pajamas. She heard Damon stand up from the window and walk over to the other version of herself, taking something out of his jacket pocket.

"I brought you this." Damon said with a smirk as he held out her necklace to the other Elena.

"I thought I lost it, thank you," other Elena as she reached for it only for Damon to pull it out of her reach, "Please give it back."

"I have to say something." Damon told her.

"Why do you have to say it with my necklace?" Other Elena asked worriedly.

"Because what I'm about to say…is probably the most selfish thing I've said in my life." Damon confessed.

"Damon, don't go there." Elena watched as the other version of herself looked at him pleadingly.

"I just have to say it once, you need to hear it," Damon said as he walked closer to her, "I love you Elena. And it's because I love you that I can't be selfish with you, why you can't know this. I don't deserve you, but my brother does."

Damon leaned down and kissed her forehead. When he was done, he glanced down at her and cupped her cheek.

"God I wish you didn't have to forget this, but you do." Damon said as a single tear slid down his cheek.

The other Elena and Damon vanished, leaving Elena in stunned silence, complicating what she now remembered. And her heart broke as she wished that things could have been different.

Young ranch

3:21 P.M.

Elena was sitting at the table, staring blankly while Pastor Young was making some tea. He was trying to make some small talk but Elena simply ignored him. Stefan was somewhere in this house, being held prisoner, but she didn't care, as awful as that sounded. She didn't care that the council was hunting down her friends, she didn't care that Alaric was dead, she didn't care about becoming a vampire, she didn't care about anything anymore. Damon was dead, nothing mattered anymore, nothing.

"Elena," Pastor Young said as he looked at her concerned, "Are you okay?"

"Fine." She told him dully.

"Elena, Stefan can't hurt you anymore." Young told her.

"Stefan wouldn't hurt me." Elena's denial sounded false even to her own ears, but she couldn't find it in herself to put any emotion into her voice.

Pastor Young looked at her pityingly, as though she a poor, naïve child, before shaking head and going back to making tea. The pot began steaming and her heart began beating rapidly as she became very aware of the smell of blood in the room. Young turned to look at her and noticed she was hyperventilating. Before he could ask what was wrong, she shot up from the table and sprinted out the door.

Elena ran from the house as fast as she could. She heard Pastor Young cry out for someone to get her. As she ran, an officer appeared and punched her, plunging her into a world of blackness.

Lockwood Cellar

5:35 P.M.

Bonnie was chanting as Jeremy paced back and forth. She stopped chanting as she opened her eyes, causing Jeremy to pause in his pacing and look at her.

"The spirits aren't listening." Bonnie told him.

"Is that it, that's all you can do?" Jeremy asked desperately.

"Yes, little Gilbert."

Hearing the familiar voice, Jeremy turned around to see Damon leaning against the entrance. Damon was giving Jeremy a look that said 'your being an idiot.' Usually, Jeremy would be mad to of even the sight of him, but now Jeremy was happy to see him. Maybe he had some help that could save Elena. However, Damon's next worlds dashed that hope.

"There hasn't been a cure for vampirism in its one thousand years. If there was, I would have found it by now. Instead of humoring Stefan's little guilt fantasy, how about you go help Elena since she and Stefan have been captured by Pastor Young!" The ghost shouted at him.

"Jer, what's happening?" Bonnie asked as she noticed that Jeremy was starring at the entrance.

"Damon's here," the medium told her quietly, "he said that there's nothing we can do, there is no cure for vampirism and Stefan is having a fantasy. And we're wasting our time and we could be saving Elena and Stefan from Pastor Young."

"What! Then let's go!" Bonnie said as she shot to her feet.

Young Ranch

5:40 P.M.

Elena came to the sound of coughing. She picked herself up and saw that she was in a cell. Across from her, Rebekah was in another cell with green mist being sprayed on her from a machine above her. She looked at Elena weakly.

"I thought I killed you." Rebekah told her.

Elena didn't respond, simply staring into space. Frowning at Elena's unusual behavior, Rebekah turned to Stefan curiously.

"What's wrong with her?" She asked him bluntly.

"Alaric killed Damon. Ever since I told her, she's been like this." Stefan told her as eyed Elena worriedly.

"It sounds like she has a broken heart." Rebekah diagnosed as eyed Elena with a degree of sympathy and understanding.

"Of course it's broken, she cared about Damon." Stefan interjected.

"Not that kind of broken Stefan," Rebekah shook her head at his denial, "you just don't want to admit it, bloody hell, she didn't want to admit it at all but the truth is she was in love with your brother."

At Rebekah's words, something seemed to have been triggered in Elena's mind. Her mind was taken to another place and time.

"_I know bonnie, you're right, you and my mom both are. I just can't tell him, not tonight anyway. I'll call you tomorrow." Elena told her best friend before hanging up._

"_Katherine."_

_She turned to see a man in his mid twenties to early thirties dressed in a leather jacket, a black shirt, black jeans, and black shoes. He had tussled black hair and icy blue eyes. He was rather handsome, Elena thought almost blushing, and he seemed very happy to see her. Elena turned around to see if he was talking to some else, but they were the only people here. She turned around to address him._

"_Um, no. I'm Elena." She told him apologetically. _

_His face fell and Elena's heart went out to him. She almost wished she was this Katherine. But then his seemed to recover and flashed her a smirk._

"_I'm sorry, you just really remind me of someone. I'm Damon." He introduced himself._

"_Not to be rude or anything Damon, but it's kind of creepy that you're out here in that middle of nowhere." Elena told him_

"_Your one to talk, you're out here all by yourself." Damon observed with a smirk that made her heart flutter._

"_It's Mystic Falls, nothing bad ever happens here." She told him. _

_He smiled at her mysteriously, as if he knew something she didn't. _

"_I got in a fight with my boyfriend." Elena told him, wondering why she was explaining this to a stranger._

"_About what, may I ask?" Damon said as held out his hands in an 'I surrender' gesture. _

"_Life, future, he's got it all mapped out."Elena told him._

"_And you don't want it?" Damon asked knowingly._

"_I don't know what I want." Elena told him._

"_Well that's not true, you want what everyone wants." Damon told her wisely._

"_What, the mysterious stranger who has all the answers." Elena said as she smiled at him flirtatiously causing him to laugh._

"_Well, let's just say I've been around a long time, I've learned a lot." Damon told her._

"_So, Damon, tell me. What is it that I want?" Elena asked him coyly._

"_You want a love that consumes you. You want passion, adventure, and even a little danger." Damon told her stepping closer to her with each word._

_Danger, Elena thought with a raised eyebrow. Who would want Danger? Yet, she couldn't help but feel that every word he said was true. She did want all of those things._

"_So Damon, what do you want?" Elena asked curiously._

_Her question seemed to throw Damon for a loop. Before he could answer, headlights started to come their way. Elena turned around to look at the car and immediately recognized it._

"_It's my parents." Elena told Damon._

_She turned back to face him and almost jumped when she realized that he was right in front of him. Damon smiled at her and looked her right in her eyes._

"_I want you to get everything you're looking for," Damon told her, "but for now, I want you to forget this happened, can't have anyone knowing that I'm in town yet. Goodnight Elena."_

Elena opened her eyes, tears beginning to fall. She had met Damon first. He was the one who had compelled her to, inadvisably, break up with Matt and possibly, fall in love with Stefan. Everything in her life, in some way, all came back to Damon. She had spent in months in denial, fighting her feeling for him until the very end and for what? A love that now seemed so trivial to her in retrospect.

"Elena!" Stefan called out worriedly before standing up, "Hey Anyone, Hey!"

"Would you shut up?" Rebekah whined.

A guard came down and looked at Stefan disgust filling his eyes. Stefan stood and looked at him desperately.

"Elena's gonna die if you don't let her out." Stefan told him.

"And?" The guard asked him indifferently.

"She's innocent, please." Stefan begged.

"She's not our problem anymore." The guard told him callously before walking away.

"Let her out!" Stefan demanded only for the guard to turn around and shoot him in the stomach with a wooden bullet.

"Stop." Elena said weakly.

The guard looked at her for a moment before putting the gun down and walking away. Stefan groaned in pain as he dug the wooden bullet out of his stomach. Once he had the bullet out, he leaned his back against the wall and sighed.

"Elena, are you okay?" He asked her worriedly.

She didn't answer him, not that he had expected her to. She had barely spoken a word since she learned that Damon was dead. He knew that he had a hard time even thinking the sentence.

"Elena, I miss him to." He told her causing her to let a soft sob.

"It's my fault." She sobbed.

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked confused.

"The only reason I was on that bridge was because I was coming back to you. I called Damon to let him know, and he died because I chose you. And that was the worst choice I've ever made." Elena confessed all the while sobbing.

Stefan was caught in a storm of conflicting emotions. He was heartbroken about Elena regretting her choice and the implication that was her feelings for Damon, but he was also furious at her for basically causing his brother's death. His anger bordered on hatred but he loved her to much to hate her, even now. How he wished he could hate her.

"Please, say something." Elena begged him.

"I…don't know what to say." Stefan confessed.

A guard came in, all of them gathering weapons until only one guard was left. Stefan exchanged a glance with Rebekah and she nodded. She began coughing and the guard came over as she distracted him with promises of money. As Rebekah vamped out, the frightened guard backed up until he was in front of Stefan's cell. Stefan grabbed him by his throat and bashed the guards head in to his cell bars repeatedly before dropping his dead body. As the blood seeped out of the guards wounded head, it spread over to Elena's cell.

"Elena, Elena!" Stefan cried desperately.

Elena looked over at the blood uninterestedly before turning her head away, despite every instinct in her begging her to drink before surrendering to unconsciousness. Rebekah, seeing this, almost gasped in surprise. Stefan looked at her, asking with his eyes what had happened. Rebekah shook her head while shooting him a sympathetic look. Stefan understood immediately and his head dropped in despair.

"Elena, please." He begged of her in despair.

When she didn't respond, Stefan used the keys he had swiped from guard to unlock his cell. He blurred out of his cell and unlocked Elena's. He tossed the keys to Rebekah before opening Elena's cell and picking her up bridal style. He briefly considered forcing her to drink but then he thought of when he had done that to Damon. Damon had resented him, even hated him, for over a century, only letting it go some months back. And, as cowardly as it made him sound, he couldn't stand the thought of Elena hating him.

He carried her out of the cellar and into the empty kitchen. He walked out of the house and saw dead officers on the lawn with Tyler standing over them, smirking viciously. Caroline, Jeremy, Bonnie, and Matt all eyed him with distain.

"Tyler, did you do this?" Stefan asked shocked at Tyler's ruthlessness.

"That's not Tyler." Caroline muttered.

"Yes I did, mate." 'Tyler' Said with a dark smile.

At the word 'mate' Stefan froze for a moment before sneering at the hybrid.

"Klaus." He said darkly.

Klaus smirked at him before looking at the passed out Elena. Klaus's smirk dropped and a rare twinge of concern shone through his eyes as he noticed how pale she was. He looked back up at the sneering Stefan.

"I take it she hasn't completed the transition." Klaus assessed.

"No." Stefan admitted the sneer vanishing from his face.

"What why not?!" Caroline exploded desperately as everyone looked shocked and worried.

"She no longer has the will to go on," Rebekah brought their attention to her as she walked out, "her heart is broken."

"And what does she have to be heartbroken about?!" Caroline shouted at the Original.

As if in response to the baby vampires shouted, Elena stirred and mumbled something that sounded a lot like 'Damon.' Everyone froze in shock, absorbing what that meant. As everyone digested this fact, Klaus burst out laughing. As everyone turned to look at him, he managed to get his laughter under control and gave them all a sly look.

"Well, looks like we were wrong about which Salvatore she truly wanted." Klaus said with a smirk.

"Why haven't you made her drink yet?" Jeremy demanded of Stefan as he turned to look at the vampire holding his sister.

"Because she refuses to, she won't drink." Stefan told the medium.

"Your inability to say no to her is what got her in this situation." Damon said as he appeared next to Jeremy.

"Damon says you not telling her no is what put her in this situation. Can't say I disagree." Jeremy informed Stefan with a sneer.

"Damon's here?" Stefan gasped as Caroline and Matt turned to Jeremy.

"Yeah I'm here, and I've got something to say." Damon snarled.

"Yeah, and he's got something to say." Jeremy informed everyone.

"How could let her die? How could you leave her down there while she drowned?" Damon snarled at Stefan.

"Damon wants to know how could let her die, how you could leave to drown." Jeremy translated.

"It was her choice Damon." Stefan said weakly.

"Screw her choice! You giving her a choice is what has put her in greater danger more often than not!" Damon exploded.

"You giving her choice is what puts her in greater danger." Jeremy translated looking like he agreed.

"And what would have done Damon?" Caroline challenged him.

"I would have saved her! In a heartbeat, no questions." Damn exclaimed hotly.

"And then Matt would be dead." Caroline said as she looked at afore mentioned human who shrugged.

"I'm okay with that." Matt said sounding like he meant it.

"But Elena wouldn't be! She would have gotten to grow up and have the life she always wanted, the life she deserved. I know I didn't used to get that but now I do. And I would have gladly given it to her, and let Matt die, because I am that selfish." Damon exclaimed passionately.

Stunned, Jeremy managed to stutter out the translation. As everyone stood shocked by the declaration, the vampires heard Elena's heard begin to slow. They turned to her as it began slowing until it finally stopped. Stefan fell to his knees as he cried out in grief while Caroline began sobbing heavily. Matt put his hand on a distraught Jeremy's shoulder even as he himself had tears running down his face.

"When you feel up to," Damon told Jeremy in a tone that was both sympathetic and distraught, "tell Stefan that this is his fault."

Damon then turned around and vanished.

The other side

Damon had no idea how long he had been walking. He had simply been trying to forget about everything. Elena, Alaric, Stefan, Ect, ect. He was in the hotel in Denver where, just last week, Elena had kissed him when he heard something.

"Damon…"

Damon turned around to see Elena standing there, looking happier than he had ever seen her to see him. Before he could utter a word, Elena had sprinted to him and enveloped him a hug. Damon returned the hug and buried his face in her hair. For a moment, they simply held each other, but then Damon broke away.

"Why Elena? Why would you let yourself die?" Damon asked her desperately searching her eyes for an answer.

"Because what s the point of living…if you are without the one you love?" She asked rhetorically as she stared up at him meaningfully.

"I don't understand you chose Stefan." Damon said hopelessly confused.

"Then you died. That put a lot of things into prospective. Why didn't you tell me that w met first?" Elena asked him as she cupped his face.

"I didn't think it would make a difference." Damon admitted.

"It wouldn't have then, but it does now." Elena told him.

"What are you saying?" Damon asked her refusing to even hope.

"I love you. I was afraid of what I felt for you but I'm not anymore. Please, say something?" Elena begged when he remained silent with an unreadable expression.

"Stop talking." Damon told her.

Damon then grabbed and kissed her. Elena eagerly returned the kiss, running her fingers through his hair as he wrapped his arms around her waist. No words were needed to know that they could now be together.

**Please leave any thoughts or comments you may have in a review or PM me.**


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